


Participation Awards

by Timewormbloom



Series: An Awkward Begining [1]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gay Victor Nikiforov, M/M, Phichit Chulanont Loves Social Media, Post-Canon, Post-Grand Prix Final, Sappy Victor Nikiforov, Social Media Expert Phichit Chulanont
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:07:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23307289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timewormbloom/pseuds/Timewormbloom
Summary: Every skater has a story about how they became the champion they are today. Yuuri's just happens to involve more tears and fewer medals (at first). People don't expect this.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri & Nishigori Yuuko, Katsuki Yuuri & Okukawa Minako, Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov, Phichit Chulanont & Katsuki Yuuri
Series: An Awkward Begining [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1724098
Comments: 5
Kudos: 85





	Participation Awards

**Author's Note:**

> The first work I did for this fandom is doing really well, so I might keep posting stuff for it. I'm still a little unsure about the pacing/characterization, so if anything looks wonky fell free to let me know!

It started, as do most of Yuuri’s adventures with social media do, with Phichit calling him and demanding that he participate in whatever challenge he had stumbled upon that week. Thankfully, the latest one actually involved figure skating (no, the internet did not need to see what he had for breakfast). Which was how he found himself on the phone with his mother, trying to talk her through the process of scanning a photo so she could send it to him. The things he did to appease Phichit and his obsessions. 

\--

Every skater had to start somewhere. It’s just that the skaters Yuuri interacted with typically started about a lightyear ahead of everyone else. Several claimed that they’d been scouted the moment they stepped onto the ice, Phichit included. Yuuri just happened to be the odd one out.

He remembered his first time on the ice vividly. Minako had coerced him into leaving the dance studio and trying something new, and ice skating was the only activity that could count as dance training that Yuuri could walk to on his own. She’d gone with him and his parents on the first day and instructed his mom to take all the photos she could. 

He had been apprehensive about getting onto the ice, so Minako grabbed him by the armpits and introduced him to the instructor like they were trying to recreate the Lion King. It didn’t get better once he got his skates on the ice. He latched onto the wall and spent the entire hour using it to slowly inched his way around the rink. He had tried to stand on his own, but the fall that followed had him sniffing for the next five minutes. There wasn’t a repeat performance. It continued like that for a few sessions before Minako told him to skate like he was trying to dance, and it finally seemed to click.

His mother had documented the entire ordeal and the photos had gone into the display that Yuuko had set up the year he had officially become a professional figure skater. Those memories now stared up at him from his phone. He pressed post, and now the photos were immortalized on social media. He noticed that Phcihit had also posted. As expected, the photo of the first time he skated showed Phichit flying across the ice, totally at ease. He would bet anything that Phichit’s first instructor hadn’t told his parents that figure skating might not be the best for him. 

\--

Victor was sprawled across his couch with his phone and his darling Makkachin. His husband was in the kitchen behind him having a conversation in rapid Japanese with his mother. He knew the basics of the language, but he wasn’t able to follow along until Yuuri said goodbye and hung up. He remained at the counter for another minute more before joining Victor on the couch.

“Anything interesting happening?” Victor embraced Yuuri and Makkachin shifted to sprawl across both of their laps.

“Not really. Just had my mother send me some old photos. Nothing exciting.”

“What kind of photos?”

“They’re on Instagram, you can check there,” Yuuri mumbled as he ran his fingers through Makkachin’s fur. Victor flicked through his phone and opened the app. At the top of his page, there was a photo of a young Minako holding Yuuri in the air.

“Aww, is that baby Yuuri?” Victor cooed.

“Yeah, I was really young is those.”

“I feel so special, seeing Yuuri dazzling the skating world for the first time.”

“Clearly you haven’t seen the other photos,” Yuuri snorted into Victor’s shoulder. Victor swiped to see the photos of Yuuri clinging to the wall in terror.

“Nope. I still see the savior of the skating world blessing the ice with his presence.”

“You goof. You’d gush over anything I did, even if it was just a decade-old participation award.”

“I’d worship it like the priceless artifact it is.”

\--

One of the side effects of Yuuri making his big comeback into skating was that a new generation was flocking to the rink. Yuuko guessed that she’s seen half the kids in the entire town in the last few months. Sure, it meant that she had to spend an extra half-hour each day cleaning all the extra skates being used, but she wouldn’t trade it for the world. They’d even reopened the concession stand that hadn’t been used since Onsen on Ice.

She was carrying a box full of chips for the stand when she heard the soft sobs. She stopped before she even realized what she was hearing. She noticed one of the slightly larger closets had light spilling from the gap. She set the box down and nudged the door open with her foot. 

“Are you okay, honey?” Yuuko knelt down beside the kid. She hesitantly reached out, and when they didn’t shy away she started rubbing their back.

“It’s nothing. I’m fine,” they insisted. Their lips were warbling, but they’d stopped sobbing and leaned into Yuuko’s touch. 

“You don’t look like you’re okay.” Yuuko gave them a concerned look and kept rubbing between their shoulders. They bit their lip and ducked their head even further. She scooted closer and the kid sagged into her side even more.

“I had a competition yesterday. I didn’t do very well, and now I’m stuck with this stupid thing,” they muttered and pulled a piece of paper out of their pockets. Yuuko recognized it as a participation award from one of the nearby competitions that was popular with the local skaters. She still had a handful of them lying around in a closet somewhere from middle school, but Yuuri’s had been displayed as the first awards he’s ever won. Actually, that reminded her of something. 

“Come on, I have something I want to show you.” She pulled the kid to their feet and ushered them out the door. They stalled for a second but shuffled behind her and started following her. She lead them to a mostly empty hallway with a large display case.

The first section was filled with participation awards like the one the kid was holding, with a worn pair of ice skates. The next section had some medals, but it was mostly bronze with an occasional silver. The section after that also had some silver, but now it was overwhelmed with gold. The last section was next to empty, but there was a single silver medal that was larger and more ornate than anything else there. A photo of a skater smiling on a podium was tacked up beneath it. 

“Wait, do these really belong to…” They had stopped at the beginning of the display before the medals started appearing. They crouched down to get a good look at the name scrawled across the bottom of all of them. 

“Yep. Even the great Yuuri Katsuki started where you are right now,” Yuuko laughed and ruffled the kid’s hair. They had an expression of pure awe. They glanced down at their award with a newfound respect and look of excitement. “He always says that he isn’t a natural-born genius, that it took a long time and a lot of hard work to get where he is now.” 

“I never knew about all of this.”

“Most people don’t. They assume that he’s always been one of the top figure skaters in the world.”

They brushed their fingers on the glass and turned to slowly trace over Yuuri’s growth and history before finally landing on the Grand Prix medal. “That’s going to be me, one day.” 

Yuuko felt a wave of nostalgia at their declaration. She could picture Yuuri huddled in front of the TV outside the rink with that same determined glint in his eyes. She would definitely be telling Yuuri about this. 

“I think he’d agree with you.” Yuuko gave them one last word of encouragement before turning to find that box of chips she’d drop somewhere. The Ice Castle really had changed, and she couldn’t say that she was upset about it. 

  
  



End file.
